The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Satellite television is increasing in popularity due to the ever-increasing amount of programming as well as the quality of programming.
Satellite television broadcast systems typically use several satellites. Each satellite has several transponders that receive signals from the ground and broadcast the signals to users. Each transponder is capable of providing a certain amount of content therethrough. That is, each transponder may provide a certain bit rate therethrough.
As the channels change from different levels or quality of content, such as high definition versus standard definition, the bit rates may change. Also, satellite programming provides occasional programming or channels that are not constantly broadcast. Pay-per-view content and sporting events are examples of occasional content that is provided.
At DIRECTV®, which is the largest provider of satellite television programming in the United States, the engineering department is responsible for generating a bit rate allocation chart to manage the bandwidth of the various transponders. Currently, channel mapping and data entry are performed manually into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is known as a bit rate allocation chart (BRAC). Once the BRAC is formed, the information is managed, shared and distributed to the various functions that are responsible for managing and maintaining the on-air broadcast. A manual procedure is followed to set-up, configure and/or modify the affected broadcast systems, including configuring the broadcast equipment, entering the channel mapping information into the traffic and scheduling system and setting up the program guide configurations. If any portion of the manual procedure is overlooked or channel data is incorrectly entered, various negative impacts on the broadcast, such as channel outages and incorrect content, may be performed. Typically, the BRAC may be changed several times and thus there are various opportunities for mis-entering or not configuring certain equipment with the latest configurations. As a result, customer satisfaction may be reduced when such errors occur.